At first look, the ABC’s new flagship drama appears to be like like a soapy cross between Neighbours and House and Away. Sweeping photographs of rugged shoreline and vacation properties roll right into a tree-lined cul-de-sac close to equivalent to Ramsay Avenue. The solar is shining. It’s bin day.
However The Household Subsequent Door’s powerfully restrained performances, stellar native forged and twisty story elevates this suburban thriller. It would shortly have you ever hooked.
Hassle in paradise
The six-part sequence, primarily based on Sally Hepworth’s 2018 novel, is about within the fictional seaside city of Osprey Level, on Victoria’s Nice Ocean Street. Isabelle (Teresa Palmer) rents a home on Nice Courtroom. She is ostensibly on the town to write down an article about “the brand new Byron Bay”.
Nevertheless, we shortly be taught she has been suspended from her job at Youngster Protecting Companies, and has truly moved in to begin obsessively investigating the 4 neighbouring households. With every episode, Isabelle turns into extra frantic and reckless in her seek for somebody or one thing, and fewer prepared (or ready) to face her personal more and more evident demons.
Palmer – who’s in a wealthy vein of kind this yr, having starred in two of Binge’s newest sequence, Mix Tape and The Last Anniversary – brings a magnetism and disconcerting sense of foreboding to the ABC’s drama slate.
Mum’s the phrase
For me, the best attraction of The Household Subsequent Door is its give attention to the ladies in every of the households on the road. The sequence explores the common challenges of motherhood, marriage and friendship, in addition to the complexities of managing identification and duty throughout these roles.
Resident busy-body realtor Ange (Bella Heathcote) is manically attempting to lock in a neighborhood property growth that she is problematically invested in, whereas micromanaging everybody round her. She is palpably irritating.
ABC
Essie (depicted brilliantly by Philippa Northeast) is struggling to bodily and emotionally join together with her younger youngsters. The social and private implications of a frightful incident on the playground reverberate throughout the sequence. All of the whereas, Essie’s mom and husband loiter helplessly.
Every episode centres on a unique matriarch, so the ensemble forged will get time to shine, as Isabelle chips away at their relationships, tales and secrets and techniques.
Acquainted faces and accents
It’s terrific to spend a while with such a powerful native forged.
It’s not unusual now for Australian dramas to (typically clumsily) shoehorn in a giant worldwide identify to safe growth funding and guarantee overseas distribution.
The Household Subsequent Door doesn’t do that, and it’s higher for it. There are various acquainted and dependable faces, together with Catherine McClements, Jane Harber, Maria Angelico and Bob Morley. The present feels hefty with expertise.
ABC
It additionally makes for an attractive and real expertise: a humorous and genuine portrayal of suburban life, with no random American accent that wants explaining. It’s relatable in an understated method – not in an “I can’t consider how a lot occurs in Summer season Bay!” sort of method.
No thriller in variations
This sequence doubtless acquired throughout the road with no huge worldwide identify attributable to its restricted six-episode run.
However that is additionally the sort of Australian storytelling that has the potential to resonate with native audiences and likewise journey properly as a part of the favored “thriller drama primarily based on a e book” style.
Prior to now few years we’ve seen Netflix fee a number of related examples, reminiscent of Boy Swallows Universe primarily based on Trent Dalton’s novel and The Survivors, primarily based on the novel by Jane Harper.
The worth of this kind of content material lies in its present viewers of readers, in addition to the power to hook viewers in and preserve them glued.
The Household Subsequent Door can be paying homage to Netflix’s The Perfect Couple. It even jogged my memory, bizarrely, of HBO’s The White Lotus – principally due to the music parallels.
The sequence is directed by Emma Freeman, who additionally directed ABC’s The Newsreader (2021–25). With an skilled inventive crew, and tailored by a handful of award-winning screenwriters, Freeman has ensured the ABC’s newest foray into this style sits comfortably alongside dearer mysteries from the massive streamers.
The Household Subsequent Door is now on ABC and iView.
